APN's daily news review from Israel

Friday February 14, 2014

Quote of the day:

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Front Page News:

Haaretz

• The small print in the draft law perpetuate the exemption for ultra-Orthodox
• In freezing cold, masses of Ukrainians battle over the image of their country // Gideon Levy in Kiev
• (Rabbi) Pinto's right hand man: We transferred money monthly at the request of Superintendent Arbiv
• You sued? Now pay - What are the implications of imposing heavy costs on the loser
• Tycoons from the academia - The state is not intervening in the salary extravaganza at the private colleges
• Nationwide malfunction prevented use of visa cards
• The Jewish officer who documented WWI
• Severe racism revelations in the protocols of Wadi Salib

• The IDF brain drain - Within two years the number of technological officers who left the army doubled because of the salaries and conditions in the civilian hi-tech world
• The Iranian deal -  French bank, among biggest in world, fined a billion dollars for commerce with Iran
• Kerry is a brother - Special to Yedioth - Cameron Kerry, the Jewish brother of the US Secretary of State, writes about his family's commitment to Israel's security
• European hypocrisy - After the horror show of the killing of giraffes: Denmark prohibits kosher slaughtering "because it's brutal"

• Government of Israel presents - The closer to the date the Kerry document is revealed at the White House in about three weeks, the more frenetic the government acts: Uri Ariel: "Kerry's paper will be rejected. Either the Fritz will die or the dog will die or both of them will die"; Livni to Netanyahu: "Replace Bennett with the Labor party and the ultra-Orthodox, for peace I am willing to wear a streimel"; Israel Katz: "One land, one state, strong and cohesive with Judea, Samaria and Hebron"
• Protocols of the interrogation of a security prisoner reveal: This is how Palestinian Authority compensation turn into source of livelihood and economic incentive to make terror attacks and sit in Israeli jails (Hebrew)
• "Israeli board members did not help us, rather they quit and left us alone" - Audrey Shimron, representative of Hadassah women in Israel, rejects claims that the organization is responsible for the administrative crisis that led to the collapse of the hospital (Hebrew)
• The insolence // Karmit Sapir-Weitz on former Hadassah hospital director Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef
• Dalia Dorner declared her candidacy for President. Lapid prohibited Yesh Atid party members from signing support for any candidate
• Jerusalem: Apartment next to deceased Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is offered for sale 1 million shekels more than its market price (Hebrew)
• Parting from the man who tried to put Europe in the toe of the Israeli shoe - Coach of Israeli national soccer team, Richard Nielsen, passed away at age 76 in Denmark

• 72% of public: The people need to choose the President of the country
• Show of power in E-1 - Some 10,000 demonstrators, including ministers, deputy ministers, MKs, rabbis and right-wing activists marched yesterday to the E-1 area between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem in protest against the construction freeze in the area and in order to tell Netanyahu not to accept the Kerry document. The first speaker, Minister of Housing Uri Ariel, emphasized: "Between the Jordan and the sea there will be one state - and that is the State of Israel"
• The heat before the rain - February has been like spring, but this weekend the rain will return - big time
• The crisis at Hadassah: Fear the nurses will leave
• The damage: 100,000 shekels a minute - Nationwide malfunction caused visa cards not to work
• Denmark prohibits kosher slaughtering: "Rights of animals ahead of religion"
• Blow to real estate developer Inbal Or: Lost the land in Bavli neighborhood of Tel-Aviv
• Former national soccer team coach, Richard Nielsen, passed away

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Peace Talk Highlights:
The collapsing of Hadassah Hospitals continued to be a top story in today's Hebrew papers, but the papers also reported on the anti-peace declarations by right-wing ministers at a demonstration against settlement construction freezes and against a framework agreement, which drew thousands of young right-wing Israelis yesterday. Maariv reported that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni asked Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to replace the right-wing pro-settler Habayit Hayehudi party with the Labor and ultra-Orthodox parties. Maan reported that a senior Fatah official said it's obvious the Israelis simply don't want peace.
 
In a show of force, Israeli ministers, deputy ministers and MKS from the right, both Likud and Habayit Hayehudi parties, led a ten-thousand person march from Jerusalem to the controversial E-1 area in the West Bank to tell Netanyahu he should not divide the land or Jerusalem and he should not worry about boycotts. They called on Netanyahu to renew settlement construction in that area. Housing Miniser Uri Ariel said that "Between the Jordan River and the (Mediterranean) sea there will be only one state."
 
Ahead of the mass demo, dozens of Palestinian popular resistance activists also held a demonstration in E-1 to protest potential Israeli settlement construction there. Unlike the protest of right-wing Jews that took place a few hours later, Israeli forces detained a Palestinian taking him to an unknown destination.
 
**Maariv/NRG Hebrew reported that during the dispute between Netanyahu and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett two weeks ago, Livni suggested to Netanyahu to bring the Labor or the ultra-Orthodox parties into the coalition instead of the anti-peace agreement Habayit Hayehudi party.
 
Member of Fatah Central Committee Tawfiq Tirawi told a Ma'an reporter in Ramallah Thursday that "negotiations can reveal to the world that the Palestinians are seeking peace, but that the occupation (regime) doesn't want it." The Israelis can reach a peace agreement, Tirawi said, "but they do not want to because according to their religious beliefs, this land belongs to them, which is neither real nor true." 

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Quick Hits:

Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.